Seen and Not Heard
by iamtheswan26
Summary: Bella leaves her abusive stepfather and oblivious mother in Phoenix to live with her dad, Charlie. What happens when an overlooked and misunderstood girl befriends the Cullens? How will she and Edward heal eachother?
1. Prologue

**** DISCLAIMER: ALL CHARACTERS HEREIN ARE PROPERTY OF STEPHENIE MEYER AND THE TWILIGHT SERIES****

**Prologue**

People see what they want of me and discard the rest.

Not that there is much to discard.

I am a specter, a shadow. I pass through life without leaving a mark. Maybe it is better this way. To be the wallflower and nothing more.

God, how I want someone to see me, who I am, hear me and listen to what I have to say, my dreams for my life and who I want to be!

But no one ever does.

This life sucks. Royally.


	2. Chapter 1

**** DISCLAIMER: ALL CHARACTERS HEREIN ARE PROPERTY OF STEPHENIE MEYER AND THE TWILIGHT SERIES****

**Chapter 1 (BPOV)**

Smack. Palm hitting my face. What a wake-up call.

Thud. Body hitting the floor.

"Get your lazy ass out of bed and get to school!"

_Oh why can't I be invisible to him like I am to everyone else? Why does he have to care about whether I am at school or not? Oh that's right, so he can pretend to love my mother while he slowly milks her dry. Fuck my life._

"I'm sorry, Phil. I didn't sleep well last night. I won't do it again." I shuffled out of bed, holding my palm to my burning face. _Why does he have to backhand me? Throwing me out of bed would work just fine._

"Excuses, you are nothing but one giant excuse. 'I didn't sleep well last night, I had a bad dream.' You're lucky your mother and I put up with your bullshit."

_My bullshit? What about YOUR bullshit? You know, when you throw me around like a rag doll in front of my obliviously docile mother? _

"I'm sorry, Phil. I will get ready right now."

With that, I slowly made my way to my bathroom. I tried to brush my rats-nest hair out and wash my face. _Why bother? It's not like you want to draw attention to the discoloration forming on your left cheek. _I looked in the mirror. The angry red mark was staring right back at me. Unfortunately, no one will notice it at my school. No one really notices me, not even the teachers. Since I get good grades and am not pregnant, on drugs, or having sex in the janitor's closet, the teachers barely notice I exist.

That's right everyone – I am Bella Swan, the invisible girl. Seventeen years old, with the social skills of a hermit.

I arranged my hair so that the left side of my face would be mostly covered. Though knowing me and my ever-present blush, people finding a handprint on my face would be pretty difficult. Ah, the glory of being a klutz and blushing every time I fell down.

"Only one more week until my birthday. Only one more week until my birthday," I chanted to my reflection in the mirror. In one week, I would be 18. And out of this place like a bat out of hell.

When my Grandma Marie past away, she left me some money in a trust that may be accessed when I turned 18. The day of my birthday, I was going to empty out the money in my bank account and go to Forks, Washington. My dad was the Chief of Police there. I spent the occasional summer with him, and I hope that he won't be too angry when I show up on his doorstep next week. I don't think he will mind, after all – I am his daughter. He doesn't hover, and he seems to go with the flow. I just need to be somewhere else, far away. And at this point, living in a cardboard box is a welcome alternative to Phil and Renee.

My parents divorced when I was 4 and immediately following, my mother and I moved to Phoenix. We existed well enough, my mother working odd jobs and me taking on the role as caretaker. She provided the income, but I made sure that the bills were taken care of, the meals were cooked, the house was cleaned and taken care of. She was the eternal teenager, flitting around from guy to guy. Then she met Phil.

Initially, I didn't think much of him. He appeared to be another "boy of the month" for my mother. Then time went by and things were starting to look serious for them. He started out being very friendly to me, taking interest in what I did, which thrilled my mother to no end. The summer before I turned 14, they got married. Renee was ecstatic that I would "have another dad in my life." No matter how nice Phil seemed, how much he tried to get to know me, my bond with Charlie was too great and I would never see Phil as "dad." Right after my fourteenth birthday, that was when the hitting began.

He would take out his anger on my mother, repeatedly. She would brush it off, saying that he was having a bad day, that he needed to vent his frustrations out somewhere. I would argue with her, saying that she needs to leave him and move on. She would tell me that I don't understand what it is like to be in love with someone. But how can you be in love with them when all they do is walk all over you?

Over time, he started controlling all of the finances in the house. He wouldn't let me see Charlie anymore, even though he was my father. When I started to argue, that's when he started hitting me. I tried to initially fight him off, but that only made the hitting worse. I tried to go to the authorities, but Phil had ties to the police department, and my injuries would always be blamed on me falling down the stairs or walking into a wall. I have had one broken leg (a courtesy of Phil and his drunken friend James), three cracked ribs, a multitude of bruises, and a few scars from where I was shoved into a glass cabinet. Each and every one of them had been explained away, and I didn't have a voice because I was a minor. He would not let me answer the phone whenever Charlie called, and after a while, Charlie stopped calling.

Not that I blame him, he assumed that my mother and I were so happy with our new lives that we didn't pay any attention to him. Oh, how he was so wrong. I missed my dad so much and the days couldn't come fast enough until I could see him again.

I was already packed and ready to go. Now, my birthday just needed to get here. I forged a note for the attendance office from my mother stating that I had a doctor's appointment. The plan was to go to the bank the moment it opened and provide them with the required documentation. My Grandma Marie set up my trust such that the funds would be transferred to a savings account that only I could access. It was time to leave, to leave the beatings and the terror. My mother may have blindly accepted it, but I sure as hell wasn't going to. I felt slightly guilty leaving her here, but I knew that she would never leave him willingly. For all the times she just stood there staring at me blankly and Phil smacked me and threw me around – I knew that she would not be the one to come to my defense and take me away from here.


	3. Chapter 2

**** DISCLAIMER: ALL CHARACTERS HEREIN ARE PROPERTY OF STEPHENIE MEYER AND THE TWILIGHT SERIES****

**Also, I promise that the chapters will get longer. Eventually.**

**Chapter 2 (BPOV)**

It is the morning of my birthday. I am finally 18, and free of this life and ready to move onto the rest of mine, hopefully in peace. Phil came in to give me the standard wake up call, with a few extra hits to the rest of my body. Gingerly, I threw my duffle bag out of my window at the side of the house. I said goodbye to my mother and walked out of that door for what hopefully would be the last time. Nothing was going to stop me.

The attendance office barely acknowledged me when I dropped off my fake note, and I left the school without incident. _Goodbye Phoenix Central. _I made my way to the bank and thankfully, there was no trouble when I withdrew the $10,000 from my grandmother's trust. Not a huge sum, but more than enough to get me to my destination.

I went to the airport bought a ridiculously expensive last minute ticket to go to Seattle, Washington. I was surprised to find that there was a bus that could take me from the airport to Port Angeles, and thankfully I wasn't going to have to pay for a three house cab ride from Seattle to Forks. Or have an awkward conversation with Charlie about why he needs to drive three hours to pick me up at the SeaTac airport. By the end of the day, I would be standing at Charlie's doorstep.

I decided to mail my mother a letter once I touched down in Seattle. I didn't want to risk her or Phil finding it while I was traveling. I wanted to put as much distance between myself and Phil before shit hit the proverbial fan. Preferably, with me already in Forks.

The flight to Seattle was quick. Zoning out to Kings of Leon and Phoenix (ironically enough) helped pass the time. I found the busses heading to various locations despite the craziness of the airport. I tried to sleep on the way from Seattle to Port Angeles, but between the bruises on my midsection and shoulder and the uncomfortable seats, I managed to be restless and uneasy. _What if Charlie wasn't happy to see me? What if he sent me back? It is nearly 5 in Phoenix, I wonder if Mom and Phil have noticed that I am not home from school yet. _My doubts were plaguing me. But I couldn't help but feel that this was the right decision. I hadn't heard from Charlie in over a year, and the last time we had spoken, it was short before Phil yanked the cordless away. I didn't even have a cell phone because you needed a parent to cosign for a phone contract and there was no way that Phil would have allowed it. _Shit, maybe I didn't think this through enough. I was so focused on my exit from Phoenix that I didn't even think enough about my reception with Charlie. Shit shit shit! _

If the worst happened, I reminded myself, I still had enough money to get an apartment somewhere and hopefully live off of that and a part time job until I finished high school. As fucked up as my current situation was, I was not about to become a high school dropout. I could survive if I had to, and figure out my game plan from there. Hopefully it wouldn't have to come to that.

It was nearly 8 when the taxi pulled up to my dad's house. _Breathe, Bella. Just breathe. _I was in a trance as I paid the driver and got my duffel out from the back seat. The street was dark, lit up only by the houses emitting light and a few scattered lamp posts. The driver pulled away and I was left, standing in front of Charlie's house. The duffel bag felt so heavy on my shoulder. Both shoulders were bruised, so there was no relief as I switched from the right to the left. In a few minutes, my feet had managed to drag me to the front door. I could hear what sounded like a basketball game coming from the inside. _So many memories, back before things got complicated. _I rang the doorbell.

Charlie opened the door and just stared at me in shock. He didn't speak for what felt like an eternity and I thought that maybe coming here wasn't the best of ideas. As I turned to leave, he whispered,

"Bells?"


	4. Chapter 3

**** DISCLAIMER: ALL CHARACTERS HEREIN ARE PROPERTY OF STEPHENIE MEYER AND THE TWILIGHT SERIES****

**Chapter 3 (BPOV)**

" Bells?" he whispered again. He continued to stare at me as if I were a ghost, as if I was going to disappear and it was all a dream.

"Dad," I choked out. Between the stress of the past few years, my escape, and the fatigue of travelling all day, my body convulsed in sobs. I dropped the duffel bag on the front porch and felt like collapsing. Charlie caught me right away and got me and my belongings inside the house.

"Bella, what's wrong? What are you doing here? Does your mother know that you are here?"

Still crying, I shook my head. Of course Renee wouldn't know that I am here, if she had Phil would have been here trying to stop me.

"Have you two had a fight? How did you get here? Come on, sit down, bells." My dad ushered me to the couch and then he went to get me a glass of water. I almost asked for a beer, but I thought that would probably not be the best way to break the ice.

Taking the glass of water from him, I drank deeply, trying to formulate what my explanation would be. I needed to tell him the truth, but I didn't know where to start. _Sorry I haven't spoken to you in years, dad, but I was living under the control of an abusive stepfather. There are bruises littering my body. I don't know what it is like to live normally anymore because of what I've been through. _None of these seemed to me to be the best ways to broach the subject as to why I was standing on his doorstep on my birthday.

"Dad, I'm sorry that I randomly showed up like this. But I couldn't stay there any longer. I had to come. I'm sorry that we haven't spoken in a long time, but that's Phil's fault. He was so controlling, he wouldn't pay for me to come up here to visit during the summers and then he prevented me from being able to talk to you on the phone. He didn't work, he just lived off of Renee, so he was always at the house. I was never given a moment to –"

"Whoa, Bells, slow down. Phil did all that?"

I took a deep breath. _He needs to here this from a rational person, not some half crazy, bruised teenage girl. _"I'm sorry, Charlie. Phil wasn't a good guy. Initially I thought he was alright, he treated mom just fine. And then he started to hurt her. And then he started to control everything, and I couldn't stop him."

Charlie's face turned red. Slowly, he asked me, "Bella, did he, did he ever hurt you?"

I didn't have to answer him. The pain of having to put up with Phil, being strong despite what I was put through, existing day in and day out in _that _house, it was too much. The damn broke and my sobs poured out of me in torrents.

"I'm," hiccup, "sorry, dad," sob, "but –"

"Shh, shh, honey. You don't have to tell me everything now. You can just rest if you'd like."

Wordlessly, I shook my head. Charlie took my duffel bag and we went up the stairs to my old bedroom. It looked clean, but other than that – nothing had changed. Everything was left where I last had it – the bed, my desk with the ancient computer on it, my bookshelf. I turned to Charlie and mouthed "thanks" before sinking onto the bed and falling into a dreamless sleep.


End file.
